What
is agroecology?
Agroecology is
a scientific discipline that uses ecological
theory to study, design, manage and evaluate
agricultural systems that are productive but
also resource conserving. Agroecological
research considers interactions of all
important biophysical, technical and
socioeconomic components of farming systems
and regards these systems as the fundamental
units of study, where mineral cycles, energy
transformations, biological processes and
socioeconomic relationships are analyzed as a
whole in an interdisciplinary fashion.
Agroecology is
concerned with the maintenance of a
productive agriculture that sustains yields
and optimizes the use of local resources
while minimizing the negative environmental
and socio-economic impacts of modern
technologies. In industrial countries, modern
agriculture with its yield maximizing
high-input technologies generates
environmental and health problems that often
do not serve the needs of producers and
consumers. In developing countries, in
addition to promoting environmental
degradation, modern agricultural technologies
have bypassed the circumstances and
socio-economic needs of large numbers of
resource-poor farmers.
The
contemporary challenges of agriculture have
evolved from the merely technical to also
include social, cultural, economic and
particularly environmental concerns.
Agricultural production issues cannot be
considered separately from environmental
issues. In this light, a new technological
and development approach is needed to provide
for the agricultural needs of present and
future generations without depleting our
natural resource base. The agroecological
approach does just this because it is more
sensitive to the complexities of local
agriculture, and has a broad performance
criteria which includes properties of
ecological sustainability, food security,
economic viability, resource conservation and
social equity, as well as increased
production.
To put
agroecological technologies into practice
requires technological innovations,
agriculture policy changes, socio-economic
changes, but mostly a deeper understanding of
the complex long-term interactions among
resources, people and their environment. To
attain this understanding agriculture must be
conceived of as an ecological system as well
as a human dominated socio-economic system. A
new interdisciplinary framework to integrate
the biophysical sciences, ecology and other
social sciences is indispensable. Agroecology
provides a framework by applying ecological
theory to the management of agroecosystems
according to specific resource and
socio-economic realities, and by providing a
methodology to make the required
interdisciplinary connections.
